Award of ExcellenceMohammad Kheirkhah United Press International"Flogging in Iran"
Saeed Ghanbari (25) receives 80 lashes in public view in the Qazvin
province, 91 Miles (165 Km) west of Tehran, Iran on August 21, 2007.
Ghanbari was convicted of consuming alcohol and having sex outside of marriage. Ghanbari was lashed at a central square of the provincal town, with thousands of onlookers witnesssing the event. Some used their mobile phones to record the punisment. Photographers were free to work, while two masked police officers each gave Gharbani 40 lashes. Iran is witnessing tighter restrictions on what politicians here call 'moral misbehaviour'. Police checks on improper dress, meaning small headscarves and short coats, which are both obigatory in the Islamic republic, have been on the rise in the capital and other cities. As a part of the same campaign, 'hooligans' from the Southern part of
the capital have been arrested in a big show of force. Hooded police
officers have been seen kicking and beating the criminals on the streets, with pictures of the arrests widely publized in local media. Corporal punishments, like the death sentencs and lashings have been carried out more publicly than other years, with the autorities wanting to set examples against 'socially devaint behaviour'. This year over 250 people have been executed, some of these have been shown on local T.V.